Part 2

Stories

In his time, as Hesiod says, —“Work was a shame to none,” nor was any distinction made with respect to trade, but merchandise was a noble calling, which brought home the good things which the barbarous nations enjoyed, was the occasion of friendship with their kings, and a great source of experience. Some merchants have built great cities, as Protis, the founder of Massilia, to whom the Gauls near the Rhine were much attached. Some report also that Thales and Hippocrates the mathematician traded; and that Plato defrayed the charges of his travels by selling oil in Egypt. Plutarch Solon.,

He [Corobius] was relieved, however, after a while by a Samian vessel, under the command of a man named Colaeus, which, on its way to Egypt, was forced to put in at Platea. The crew, informed by Corobius of all the circumstances, left him sufficient food for a year. They themselves quited the island; and, anxious to reach Egypt, made sail in that direction, but were carried out of their course by a gale of wind from the east. The storm not abating, they were driven past the Pillars of Hercules, and at last, by some special guiding providence, reached Tartessus. This trading town was in those days a virgin port, unfrequented by the merchants. The Samians, in consequence, made by the return voyage a profit greater than any Greeks before their day, excepting Sostratus, son of Laodamas, an Eginetan, with whom no one else can compare. From the tenth part of their gains, amounting to six talents, the Samians made a brazen vessel, in shape like an Argive wine-bowl, adorned with the heads of griffins standing out in high relief. This bowl, supported by three kneeling colossal figures in bronze, of the height of seven cubits, was placed as an offering in the temple of Juno at Samos. Herodotus

Various types of ships, warships, pirateships, Image from a Kylix.

See also Ships from Cdm Paris 322

Giant warships with more than 7000 crew members!

QUOTATIONS

Some report also that Thales and Hippocrates the mathematician traded; and that Plato defrayed the charges of his travels by selling oil in Egypt.. Solon By Plutarch

Comments

ship ( ἡ ναῦς pl. αἱ νῆες )

Mythology

Hercules and the Cattle of Geryon labor. Hercules crossing the Ocean in a golden bowl (or goblet) that he obtained from Helios, the Sun god (who used also this bowl as a “ship”). Okeanos, a sea god produced a storm which made this crossing difficult until Hercules threatened Okeanos with violence. Hercules placed two Pillars one in Gibraltar and one in Ceuta (a Spanish exclave in Morocco), the so-called Pillars of Hercules, marking the boundaries of the Atlantic Ocean from the Mediterranean Sea.

Dionysus and pirates (Attic BF kylix) 530 B.C. by Exekias (Munich: Antikensamml. Inv. 2044) As an exercise find where the pirates are!

NAVIGATION

In the Odyssey, Calypso directs Odysseus, in accordance with Phoenician rules for navigating the Mediterranean, to keep the Great Bear "ever on the left as he traversed the deep" when sailing from the pillars of Hercules (Gibraltar) to Corfu. Yet such a course taken now would land the traveller in Africa. Odysseus is said in his voyage in springtime to have seen the Pleiades and Arcturus setting late, which seemed to early commentators a proof of Homer's inaccuracy. Likewise Homer, both in the Odyssey [1] (v. 272−5) and in the Iliad (xviii. 489), asserts that the Great Bear never set in those latitudes. Now it has been found that the precession of the equinoxes explains all these puzzles; shows that in springtime on the Mediterranean the Bear as just above the horizon, near the sea but not touching it, between 750 B.C. and 1000 B.C.; and fixes the date of the poems, thus confirming other evidence, and establishing Homer's character for accuracy. [1] (In Greek!) Plaeiadas t' esoronte kai opse duonta bootaen 'Arkton th' aen kai amaxan epiklaesin kaleousin, 'Ae t' autou strephetai kai t' Oriona dokeuei, Oin d'ammoros esti loetron Okeanoio. George Forbes, History of Astronomy.

Images

Links to more sources on ships, shipwrecks, navigation etc.

As he held his loyal and loving wife, he cried. Just as it's a welcome sight for swimmers when land appears, men whose well-constructed ship Poseidon has demolished on the sea, as winds and surging waves were driving it, and a few men have swum to shore, escaping the grey sea, their bodies thickly caked with brine, and they climb gladly up on land, evading that disaster, that how Penelope rejoiced to see her husband. She simply couldn't stop her white arms holding him around the neck. Odyssey